Trailers

The endcard for the trailers. Each trailer sequentially revealed a new member of Team RWBY.

Four trailers were released leading up to the premiere of RWBY. Unlike regular previews, the trailers for RWBY were not cut using animation from the series, instead being original self-contained animated short films that told their own unique stories. In this sense, they acted more like prequels for the series proper than actual trailers.

Each trailer is referred to by a certain color and letter and features a character corresponding to those themes, revealing a little about the central characters' backstory. For example, the "Red", or "R", Trailer featured the character Ruby Rose.

Standard editorial or non-story trailers using scenes cut from the series itself were also released promoting the first three Volumes. The Volume 1 trailer was released after the initial run, promoting the physical DVD release. The Volume 2 trailer was released alongside the RTX 2014 attendees-only premiere of Volume 2. The Volume 3 trailer was released online, a few days before the premiere.

The "Volume 4 Character Short" was released on October 3rd, 2016, around three weeks before the premiere of Volume 4.[1] It featured original animation and story in the same vein as the four character trailers.

RWBY Chibi had three trailers, a teaser for the show featuring Ruby pushing the logo,[3] a Season 2 Character Intro revealing Chibi Penny Polendina,[4] and a regular Season 2 preview.[5]

Trivia

In each of the four trailers, the moon is visible in a different phase of the lunar cycle, progressing from full in the "Red" Trailer to completely shattered in the "Yellow" Trailer.

In the "Red", "Black" and "Yellow" trailers, a crow flies by during a scene. This might be a signature employed by Monty, akin to the appearance of doves in the works of John Woo whom Monty was a fan of.[6]

Monty Oum had compared the trailers to the "Meet The..." vignettes for the video game Team Fortress 2, highlighting the characters' fighting styles and weapons.[7]

It was stated by Monty in a journal that there would be no trailers for Volume 2, instead he showed a teaser image for Team CFVY.[8] A single editorial trailer for Volume 2 was later released, but certain scenes were changed or edited in the actual episodes.

The four character trailers formed the basis for the first nine chapters of the RWBY manga.